relationship with God | Life Recovery

12 Steps to Growing Your Faith

Confess any shortcomings.
Confession means “to agree with” God what is true about one’s condition. One must stop blaming others and excusing themselves. When an individual asks God for forgiveness, “He is faithful and just to forgive” them (1 John 1:9, NLT). Only when someone confesses that they are stuck will they begin to get unstuck and start to grow in their faith.
Admit any failures.
No one can save themselves. One must come to the end of themselves, admit their failures, and say, “God, I’ve failed in my attempts to change and to get better.” But if someone tries to overcome their problems by willpower alone, they will fail. Instead of trying harder, they must admit they are weak, and then they’ll find strength in the Lord. 2 Corinthians 12:9 says Christ’s “power works best in weakness.”
Get help from God. (more…)

The 3-Fold Path of Life Recovery

Is your journey of Life Recovery going well? Or, are you overwhelmed at the path set before you of getting through all of the 12 Steps? If so, you are not alone. Whether it’s our first time in recovery or we’re getting back into it after a long break, the 12 Steps can seem intimidating.

Another way to look at the 12 Steps of Life Recovery is to see it as a 3-fold path—or, that there are three commitments we need to make. In other words, the 12 Steps call us to make a commitment to God, ourselves, and others.

Commitment to God
“Dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living (more…)

Making New Year’s Resolutions Stick

Life Issues

On New Year’s Day, we are excited to set New Year’s resolutions and accomplish them. But within 30 days, most of us quit.

We’re initially looking forward to doing whatever it takes to reach our resolutions. But as reality sets in, we become less and less excited. It’s hard work to meet our goals—many of us give up on them altogether.

Is there a way we can accomplish our New Year’s resolutions and make them stick? Yes, absolutely! We can learn three principles from farming.

Get rid of contaminants. (more…)

Dangerous Isolation?

Relationships/Marriage

“If you are living in isolation because of shame, God wants you out of hiding and into the arms of a healing community.”- Steve Arterburn

Have you been isolating yourself? Are you ashamed of your struggles? Has it been hard for you to connect with others? One thing that will either make or break your recovery is connection. You are more likely to succeed in recovery when you choose to connect. But isolating, withdrawing, and separating is dangerous. Why? There are three reasons why isolation is dangerous.

Reason 1: Isolation hurts your relationship with God.
When you go off course, you tend to run from God. We’ve all made mistakes; we’ve all done things we’ve regretted. (more…)

Why Doesn’t God Fix Everything?

Addiction/Recovery

One fatal day, Job lost everything – his wealth, children, and even good health.

Job cried out to God by asking some challenging questions. In Job 3:11, he asked: “Why wasn’t I born dead?” In other words, Job questioned why God allowed him to go through such intense suffering.

Can you relate? Perhaps the unthinkable happened to you. You might have been emotionally, physically, or sexually abused as a child. Or, maybe you were betrayed on the deepest level when your spouse had an affair and abandoned you. Now you turn to food, drugs, sex, shopping, alcohol, or another addiction to numb your pain. You’ve prayed for God to heal you by taking away your pain. (more…)